


all my words are for you

by snowandfire



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Board Games, Fluff, M/M, Scrabble, Sokka (Avatar)-centric, Words, anyway, bilingual sokka, i saw a tumblr text post and went feral, idiots to lovers, just read it, that should be a real tag, they're so oblivious, this is just fluff, what do you expect from me at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27173447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowandfire/pseuds/snowandfire
Summary: [ Zuko is nice. Really, really nice. Sokka’s always noticed how warm his eyes are, even when he’s being ruthless on game nights and stone-cold during exam season. Even when he threatens murder over people drinking from his teapot. He’s always nice to Sokka. He falls into step, walking right by his side. He does a little jog from across the quad just to catch up with Sokka in the middle of the day. He checks out books from the library that he thinks Sokka would like. He actually reads the things Sokka recommends specifically for him. He remembers Sokka’s interests and his likes. And he trusts Sokka with his own problems, he comes to Sokka for advice.Sokka doesn’t remember anyone caring this much. ]or: zukka fluff ft. scrabble
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 519





	all my words are for you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Barnable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barnable/gifts).



> based on this post: https://thatbarnablebitch.tumblr.com/post/630012580105175040/aang-i-am-going-to-put-my-a-down-to-make

Sokka’s always been good with words. Being bilingual helps. Years of switching back and forth between English and Central Yup’ik makes it easier for him to process patterns. It also helps that he inhales books: both of the regular and the comic variety. Everytime he talks he can draw on every word he’s ever read. In short: he’s a huge nerd. And words are _his thing_. 

As a result, he’s always dominated at Scrabble. No matter who he’s playing with. But in these past couple years, he’s tried to hold it back a little. 

He’s picked up on the way some people react when he acts like himself. Even if it’s just in the context of a game. The way they roll their eyes or seem impatient when he explains things that he finds interesting. He supposes that maybe they don’t find all of his facts as cool as he does. That’s fine, that’s fair. He wishes they weren’t rude about it, like they sometimes are. But what can ya do? It hurts, but he tries to keep his facts and his words to himself. 

At first, he thinks Zuko is no different than _those_ people. It’s a cool October night. They’ve gathered around a Scrabble board, just him, the gang, and Zuko. Zuko’s been hanging around with them a lot lately. At first it started as an informal study group thing, with him and Aang. But now he gets invited to game night, and movie night, and do-whatever-we-want-because-midterms-just-happened night. Which is fine. Sokka’s fine with that. Zuko’s just another guy they hang out with. Just another guy--who happens to laugh at all of Sokka’s jokes. Just another guy--who happens to be kinda shy, and sort of sweet, and yeah, really freaking competitive. 

The man is crazy. He had treated their round of Monopoly as if it was a matter of life and death. Sokka’s used to going to war with Katara over properties on the board, but he’s not used to the kind of ruthless, cold-blooded strategy Zuko applies to a board game of all things. Also, and more importantly, Sokka hates losing. He especially hates losing to Zuko, with his smug little smile and waterfall of perfect, long black hair. So for Scrabble, he thinks he’ll pull out his A-game for a change. 

“Ready to lose, buddy?” Zuko asks as he sets up the board. 

“Oh no. Trust me, _buddy_ , you’re not gonna know what hit ya.” 

Katara and Aang trade a knowing look that Sokka does not like. 

Suki clears her throat pointedly, “Let’s go clockwise. I’ll go first.” 

Suki’s not bad at Scrabble either. She sets down a respectable word. Five letters. 7 points. It’s not _terrible._

The next few rounds are easy. Everyone has plenty of pieces. But no one has enough good ones to do any fancy business just yet. Sokka nets a triple word score on his move, but that’s just standard for him. He looks up to see if this has made Zuko nervous, and you know what, maybe it did? Because Zuko is looking at him all funny. Touching his own neck. He looks a little sweaty and a bit flustered. From time to time he’s biting down on his own lower lip and fidgeting. Good. That must mean he’s scared or nervous. He should be. Sokka owns this game. 

But sadly, this game is a draw. The board’s nearly filled up, and none of them can empty their set of tiles. This isn’t really typical for Scrabble and it’s definitely not typical for Sokka. His moves have been terrible compared to what he can usually do. Sure, he’s been keeping an eye on the new guy this whole time. But that couldn’t have distracted him to the point of incompetence at the one game he knows like the back of his own hand. 

“Rematch,” Sokka says, “I demand a rematch.” 

Aang sighs, “It’s late...I need to get up early to walk Appa!” 

“One more game?” Sokka begs, “Come on...Katara you have to play I’m your ride home.” 

“Okay,” Aang nods, “One more, Sokka.” 

This time, Sokka’s going to have his head in the game. This time, Sokka is going to destroy him. 

“I am going to put my A down to make A,” Aang says, laying down his tile. 

Katara considers for a second then says, “I will add on to your A to make AT.” 

Zuko looks up at Sokka, meeting his eyes for a long excruciating second, “I’ll add on to your AT to make RAT.” 

Sokka cracks his knuckles. _Alright. Time to work some magic._

“I’ll add onto your RAT to make BIOSTRATAGRAPHIC.” 

Zuko takes one look at the word, and flips the board over in frustration. Hard. Tiles land everywhere. One smacks Suki in the eye and she lets out an indignant ‘hey’. Then it’s quiet. Nobody speaks for a full minute. 

“Oh my god,” Zuko says, “I’m--I’m so sorry.” 

Sokka laughs, and says he’s fine, that it’s fine, but he’s not. Zuko looks so embarrassed at the outburst. But maybe he should be. This is why Sokka tries not to act like himself. Whatever that means. Because people just hate it. Clearly even Zuko can’t stand it. 

Zuko continues apologizing even as he walks to his car. He says doesn’t know what came over him, stuff like that. Excuses, excuses, Sokka’s used to it, he’s not even listening. 

Until Zuko puts a tentative hand on his shoulder, “Let me make it up to you?” 

“Dude, it’s scrabble, no big, okay?” Sokka lies, because it’s not just Scrabble, it’s an entire life of playing someone he is not to make people comfortable and he hates it. 

“I think, I think it is a big,” Zuko stammers. He sort of has a lisp, Sokka notices. He hadn’t noticed that before. Huh.

“How could you possibly make it up to me?” Sokka asks. He can see Katara sitting in the passenger seat out of the corner of his eye. She’s waiting for him to get in. 

Then Zuko’s blushing, and looking down at his own hands, then back up at Sokka, “Let me buy you dinner sometime. I’ll explain everything.”

Something in Sokka’s brain short-circuits, and he finds himself accepting and saying, “Sure, yeah, why not?” 

* * *

Sokka had expected dinner as in, Subway, or something. Not a real dinner. Definitely not at a place as fancy as this. He starts to wonder if maybe this is a date, but then quickly rules that out. If this were a date, he surely would have figured it out before now. 

He meets Zuko at the restaurant at a little past seven. It’s already dark, and Zuko’s just a few minutes late. He looks a little disheveled, as if he ran here. And is that a dress shirt? He looks good though, Sokka takes the time to notice. The light from the streetlamps bounces off his face at all the right angles. _Kinda pretty._ He’s tied his hair up, and Sokka gets a bit distracted watching it swish when Zuko moves. 

“Sorry, um, car broke down,” he explains, panting. 

“Don’t you live four miles from here?” Sokka asks. 

“Yeah,” Zuko nods. 

“You could have just called and cancelled? I’d have been cool with that.” 

He would not have been cool with that. He’s had this date (calendar date mind you) circled on his planner for a whole week. But that’s neither here nor there. 

“Oh,” Zuko looks a bit downcast at that, “Right. I could have.” 

When they get into the restaurant Zuko seems to know the people there. He explains that his Uncle knows everyone. _Weird._ But hey, at least they get good seats. Sokka orders the chicken yakitori and then he twiddles his thumbs. This isn’t a date. But if it was a date, this is usually the part where he starts talking about his interests, cannot stop, and ruins the date. So this time he’ll just try really hard to focus on the miso soup. 

“How are your classes?” Zuko asks. 

Classes? Right. Classes. That’s a dangerous question. Because right now Sokka is taking a class on animal biology. A gen-ed. It’s made him stay up late at night reading all types of articles about genetics in mice. Epigenetics, and the _agouti mice_ specifically. And the experiments done involving them. But Zuko doesn’t want to hear about that right? No one wants to hear about that. Except Aang, sometimes, but Aang is special and also dating his sister. So there’s that. 

“Fine,” Sokka says, “You know, they’re good.” 

“You know, if you’re uncomfortable, you seem uncomfortable, we don’t have to--” 

“I’m not! I’m not uncomfortable. I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. You know. Since you were so. You know when we were playing scrabble and you kinda freaked out.” 

“Right,” Zuko sighs, “I can explain that. I mean it doesn’t excuse it. But I can explain it.” 

Now this Sokka would love to hear, “Okay. Tell me.” 

“Growing up, my sister was always this prodigy. I used to want to win games with her, cause she was so much younger than me. I wanted to, um, seem smarter than I really was. When you played your word, I guess it just reminded me of that. But I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” 

Katara’s really smart too. So Sokka knows what that’s like. Somewhat. But there’s something more here. 

“Why did you wanna be better than her that badly?” Sokka asks, not realizing until it leaves his mouth, that this is way too loaded of a question to ask, even if this _was_ a date. Which it’s not. At all. 

“I wanted to impress someone,” Zuko says bitterly, “It doesn’t really matter who. Didn’t work.” 

“I’m sorry man,” Sokka offers, “I--” 

_Oh fuck._

Sokka does a 180. Zuko looks really sad now. Sokka has to do something. Maybe it _is_ time to talk about mice genetics. So he does, he does talk. After a minute or two of explaining about the mice Zuko perks up. Zuko even asks him a follow-up question. And not just a generic one to keep the conversation going. But a real, insightful one that proves he’s been listening. Zuko listens with this captivated look in his eyes that makes Sokka want to go on. To tell him everything on his mind and in his heart. 

They stay at the restaurant almost till closing time. And that’s when it hits him. He’s been boring Zuko this whole time. And he has to apologize for being weird and talking about mice genes and what not and the state of the rainforest and all of the things he just can’t stop blabbing about. 

So he does. In the only way he can. Using a self-deprecating joke. 

“Ha,” he laughs as Zuko handles the bill, “Bet you’re glad you’ll be rid of me soon, huh?” 

“How could you say that?” Zuko asks. 

“It’s a joke,” Sokka explains, “Zuko, I know I talk about a lot of stuff most people don’t find that interesting.” 

“Maybe, but it was nice, for me,” Zuko confesses, he’s blushing again. Just a bit. 

That’s weird. That’s _really_ weird. Okay, Sokka thinks, maybe Zuko just likes talking about mice too. Maybe they have more in common than he previously thought. _Nice._

For the next few weeks, they do it again, and again. Dinners, and walks, and little trips to the outlet mall. Sokka asks Zuko lots and lots of questions, and he doesn’t hold back even a little bit. It’s crazy how much Zuko just happens to like everything that Sokka has to say. He has to like it, because why else would he hang onto every word and stand so close. And be so sweet and nice and _oh no._

Zuko _is_ nice _._ Really, really nice. Sokka’s always noticed how warm his eyes are, even when he’s being ruthless on game nights and stone-cold during exam season. Even when he threatens murder over people drinking from his teapot. He’s always nice to Sokka. He falls into step, walking right by his side. He does a little jog from across the quad just to catch up with Sokka in the middle of the day. He checks out books from the library that he thinks Sokka would like. He _actually_ reads the things Sokka recommends specifically for him. He remembers Sokka’s interests and his likes. And he trusts Sokka with his own problems, he comes to Sokka for advice. 

Sokka doesn’t remember anyone caring this much. When he realizes that, is when he starts looking. He had looked at Zuko before, like he would at any cute guy he didn’t really know. But after Zuko became a friend that had stopped. And now it’s started again. Because Zuko’s smiles are few and far between and mostly for him. His hand is warm when it brushes against Sokka’s as he reaches for a pen. He causes a scene in office hours once in a while, and sometimes he gets a little too frustrated but in those moments he looks to Sokka to calm him down, to forgive him and Sokka would rather die than turn him away. 

Sokka looks at the scar too. It looks like it hurts real bad even now and he knows that when most people look at Zuko that’s all they see. That’s a shame, because there’s a kindness and warmth in his eyes that’s sweeter than any surface of unmarred skin could be. Sokka’s just been basking in the heat of it. 

So now when Zuko asks questions, and follow-up questions, and stands close and tries so hard to be supportive it takes every ounce of self-control Sokka has to not kiss him. Because what they have, the easy connection and _everything_. It’s not worth losing. 

It just takes one question to undo him. 

“Words are your thing right?” Zuko asks, and he sounds fond, and a little sleepy, and soft in all the right ways. It’s past midnight and they’re lying on his dorm room floor just staring up at the textured ceiling. 

“Uh-huh, definitely,” Sokka confirms. He likes the way his shoulder is brushing up against Zuko's. He likes the way some of Zuko's hair brushes against his cheek. 

“So how would you describe me?” 

It’s a daring question, from someone who’s just a friend. Sokka turns to face him, and when their face to face he can see the want in Zuko’s eyes plain as day. Maybe it’s been there all along. _I’m an idiot._

“Pulchritudinous,” Sokka answers, his breath catching in his throat, “Yeah. That’s you alright.” 

“But that means--”

“Beautiful, uh-huh, looks like someone’s been practicing for Scrabble.” 

Zuko shrugs, by now he’s red like a tomato, “You like Scrabble. I, uh, just like winning.” 

“There’s no honor in losing, huh? Tell me though? Do you actually have a special interest in mice, and genetics, and all of that?” Sokka asks, taking Zuko’s face in his hands. He just has to know, this one last thing. 

Zuko shakes his head, and he looks so embarrassed. Like he’s ruined everything. That won’t do. That absolutely won’t do. Because Sokka understands. He finally, finally understands. It’s not the stuff Zuko cares about. _It’s him._ Zuko cares about him and wants to listen and love and just be there. It’s enough to make Sokka’s heart burst. Because that can’t have been easy. Sokka knows he can be obnoxious about the things he knows a lot about. And whatever happened to Zuko before, with that smart sister of his. With Zuko’s horrible father and all his expectations. Clearly it mattered and Zuko did this for him anyway.

_How the heck did he know. How did he know that all I wanted was for someone to listen and for someone to stay._

Sokka wonders if it was there hidden in all the stuff he said. He wonders if in all the things he talked about he let slip that he had dreamed of something like this. 

“Good,” Sokka nods, “That’s good.” 

Zuko’s eyes widen in surprise. Then flutter shut as Sokka kisses him. It’s soft and chaste and kissing Zuko makes all the words in Sokka’s mind go away. No words and only feelings rush through his head. He doesn’t think and just hears the noises that Zuko makes. The feel of Zuko’s skin and the rush of his own beating heart. Talking to Zuko was feeling heard. Kissing him is feeling known. The feeling of Zuko's mouth on his grounds him in the present and brings his racing mind to a halt. He’s always been a words guy. But when he pulls away he can only caress Zuko’s face and smile. For once in his life he’s speechless. 

**Author's Note:**

> i can be found @bluberry-spicehead :))))


End file.
